New buyer wants to buy our searches, how much do we ask for them?

penguine

We pulled out of a house purchase a few weeks ago. The sellers have found a new buyer and the EA phoned me to ask if we'd like to sell them our searches. Paid probably £250 for them, I thought we'd offer them at half price but OH thinks we should ask for more as they're getting them for less than they would have paid anyway.

What do you think?

And am I correct in assuming that they should go through our solicitor for this as we've sent them back all the paperwork?

Thanks.

bing0

penguine wrote: »

We pulled out of a house purchase a few weeks ago. The sellers have found a new buyer and the EA phoned me to ask if we'd like to sell them our searches. Paid probably £250 for them, I thought we'd offer them at half price but OH thinks we should ask for more as they're getting them for less than they would have paid anyway.

What do you think?

And am I correct in assuming that they should go through our solicitor for this as we've sent them back all the paperwork?

Thanks.

You should go through your solicitor and in fact your solicitor should have already raised this with your sellers solicitors. It depends on how old they are as they only have a life span of 3 months and I take it your sellers did not require a HIP. If it was me I would be asking at least £200.

penguine

Thanks Bing0, I'll phone the solicitor tomorrow. Yes the searches are only 4-6 weeks old and sellers didn't require a HIP as they put the house on the market last November I think.

Premier_2

What exact searches are they?

Last time I purchased a property they were about £1 or £2 each. Even with inflation I wouldn't think they be more than a tenner each.

Edit: looks like some have gone up a bit (or I forgot one or two since then)

Local search £130-£170
water search £30
Mining search £15
Bankruptcy search £2
Land registry £4

http://www.swarb.co.uk/lawb/cvrDisbursements.shtml

AJ1982

I would personally say no, just to ensure no legal implications should anything have changed. They are "your searches", the prospective buyer should get "their own" searches, to prevent any conflict of interest IMO.

lonestar1

Im with AJ1982 who would the new buyers sue if something was missed of the search I doubt the insurance would cover someone who bought the searchs second hand

phlash

Just a small clause stating that no repercussions come your way etc.

I'd sell for half price. You weren't expecting to get anything back (£250 loss), and new buyers might have to pay £250. £125 and you both win a little, cooperate.

I wouldn't pay anything more than £125, since I see it that I'm giving you some money back on something you'd previously written off, is second hand, and wasn't commissioned by myself.

space_rider

I bought searches from the previous owner as it was a part exchange. I was charged £110 which was around half price. For some reason the part exchange company never billed my solicitors after completion so I got the money back. I would ask for half the cost, like someone else said you didn`t bargain on getting anything for them. I lost on a sale of a house which I had already done the searches for and would have been happy to have sold them on for half price.

AJ1982

Sounds like the new buyer will be pulling out soon as well due to lack of funds, if they are scraping around for a couple of quid... god knows whats gonna happen when they buy...

leviathan

So AJ1982, you're quite happy with spending more than you need to rather than chasing a good deal?
Wrong forum mate.

penguine

Thanks for all your replies, I'll speak to our solicitor tomorrow and suggest the new buyers pay half.